


Impossible

by Wrathofscribbles



Series: Shipping words [16]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:26:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25409884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wrathofscribbles/pseuds/Wrathofscribbles
Summary: Hope.  It's what keeps you going.
Relationships: Prompto Argentum/Noctis Lucis Caelum
Series: Shipping words [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1227737
Comments: 7
Kudos: 35





	Impossible

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MathClassWarfare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MathClassWarfare/gifts).



> **Reminder that Final Fantasy XV and its characters and content are the property of Square Enix. I'm just playing in a tiny corner of the sandpit they've created.**

Three days. That's how long he lasts. Just three days.

They've gone longer without seeing one another, of course, back when they had college and exams and part-time jobs and training. But there'd at least been _contact_ back then; short text messages, meme spams, and the long-winded phone calls scattered with conversation and companionable silence and the occasional _"I miss you."_

It's not occasional now. It's _constant_ , a throb in his chest where his heart beats a broken rhythm, glass shards carving their way out from his chest and slicing through his veins. _He's not here_ , scratched in every edge, _he's not here._ There's no answer to the one voicemail he's left since Noctis was dragged into the Crystal, the same voicemail cut short when airborne daemons attacked Aranea's ship. There's no new text to bring a smile to his face when so much distance separates them.

Three days. That's how long he lasts before the loneliness takes him in wicked talons and crushes the breath from him, beats him down until he's on his knees in the caravan they've rented for the week, biting hard on his knuckles if only to keep from _sobbing_ louder than Ignis can politely ignore. Three days, and he's already tucking knees up close to his chest at night, arms curled tight round a lumpy pillow too flimsy to replace the solid weight and heat of another body.

_I miss you. I miss you so goddamn much. Please be safe._

Unseen by those without the royal blood running riot through their veins, Carbuncle slinks down from the back of the sofa to perch on the arm instead, dark eyes unblinking as she watches Prompto struggle with a restless sleep.

* * *

He's dreaming. He knows he's dreaming. Only in his imagination does the sun shine so brightly it paints the world on the other side of his eyelids a bright red.

And only in his imagination is there someone willing to run their fingers through his hair while he lazes with his head in their lap. Only here does a tingle work through his skin whenever Noctis sends a whisper-soft brush of magic over him.

Prompto scrunches his eyes shut so hard they ache, if only to spend five more minutes in this peace, in this memory of when times were simpler and they were safe behind the Wall. No daemons to fight, no Scourge to scrub clean of their skin so it didn't spread and take hold, no _Ardyn_ to run from.

"You look tired," Noctis says and oh, _oh_ , just that soft murmur is enough to splinter his heart wide open and wrench a desperate noise from his throat.

 _I miss you I miss you I miss you._ "It's been a long couple of months."

"I know. I'm sorry it's taken so long to get here. There's been... some problems."

_Just a dream. This is a dream. This isn't real._

"Can you do something for me?"

"Anything," no hesitation, never, not with Noctis.

"Don't stop fighting. Carbuncle can't help if we give up now."

_Wait - what?_

He opens his eyes.

He wakes up.

* * *

His cheek is still warm from Noct's thigh. _Impossible_. And _yet._

The little figurine of a fennec fox Noctis used to carry around everywhere is attached to his phone, held in place by a wire looped through the hole in one ear. It never _had_ that before.

"... Carbuncle?"

 _I'll try my best,_ chimes his phone, the entire screen going black as tiny grey pawprints march from the bottom left corner to the top right, blurring and reshaping into words right before his eyes. _But I can't work with the dead. Stay sharp and alive, kiddo._


End file.
